Combs was acquitted by a jury in July of the most serious charges against him \u2013 sex trafficking and racketeering \u2013 but convicted of two counts of transporting people across state lines for prostitution.<\/p>\n
Combs\u2019 former girlfriend Casandra Ventura submitted a letter to the judge asking him to consider \u201cthe many lives that Sean Combs has upended with his abuse and control\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ventura, the 39-year-old singer known as Cassie, described in wrenching detail the physical, emotional and sexual abuse she suffered while in a more than decade-long relationship with Combs.<\/p>\n
Ventura and another woman, identified as Jane, said they were coerced into performing so-called \u201cfreak offs\u201d: sexual marathons with hired men that Combs directed and sometimes filmed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe entire courtroom watched actual footage of Combs kicking and beating me as I tried to run away from a freak off in 2016,\u201d Ventura wrote.<\/p>\n
She said she has nightmares and flashbacks \u201con a regular, everyday basis\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ventura said she and her family had left the New York area for fear of \u201cretribution\u201d from Combs if he is released.<\/p>\n
Speaking before the sentencing, prosecutor Christy Slavik said Combs has not accepted responsibility for his actions.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis remorse was qualified. It\u2019s as though he thinks the law doesn\u2019t apply to him,\u201d Slavik said.<\/p>\n
Slavik said Combs had booked speaking engagements in Miami next week in anticipation of a light sentence, which she called \u201cthe height of hubris\u201d.<\/p>\n
Arguing for a lesser sentence, Nicole Westmoreland, one of Combs\u2019 lawyers, called him an \u201cinspiration\u201d to the Black community and a social justice crusader.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, Combs is not larger than life,\u201d she said. \u201cHe\u2019s just a human being. He\u2019s made mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he is remorseful and \u201cit\u2019s of no benefit to anyone to warehouse him in a prison\u201d.<\/p>\n
Combs\u2019 six adult children each delivered an emotional plea on their father\u2019s behalf, with the eldest Quincy Brown calling him \u201ca changed man\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease, please give our family the chance to heal together,\u201d said one of his daughters, D\u2019Lila Combs. \u201cNot as headlines but as human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n
– Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Combs was acquitted by a jury in July of the most serious charges against him \u2013 sex trafficking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1558,1873,35827,15970,35826,3011,42,78,44443,130,157,43,1523,8442,48804,3546,5161,131,61,40,38,41,39,1530],"class_list":["post-58856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-been","tag-charges","tag-combs","tag-conviction","tag-diddy","tag-four","tag-headlines","tag-in","tag-mogul","tag-more","tag-music","tag-news","tag-over","tag-prison","tag-prostitutionrelated","tag-sean","tag-sentenced","tag-than","tag-to","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}